Liberty
by Deh Kitteh
Summary: A Sniper who loves her own rules sets to see what Prontera has to offer after being kicked out of Payon because of a drinking problem
1. Chapter 1

Looking upon the entrance of Prontera as it enticed our adventurer forward

every single ounce of that feeling coming to a quick grinding halt.

-SQUISH-

The tall sniper looked down below her feet to find an unwanted surprise

"Oh wow.." she lipped as she shook her foot back and forth to rid the bottom of her boot from what was left of a poring.

Disgruntled and a little bit tired from a decently long walk from Payon she quickly decided to continue about her way.

Lauren was her given name, but for a person such as herself, she was given an array of titles by friend and foe alike.

Having been banished from the archer guild and ordered to leave Payon because of a drinking problem she had.

Perhaps sometimes she would admit she's drank a bit too much alcohol.

And her only excuse is what she is now is why she persists

Stripped of her status as an archer of Payon, and her rights to her own guild, along with most of her belongings upon being banned, she decided to head to Prontera to at least get back onto her feet for now.

The guard standing by the archway into Prontera nodded at her entrance.

A relieving sense slapped her across the face since this was probably the first thing that didn't go wrong after the past few days.

The first thing she noticed was the population difference between Payon and Prontera.

More merchants then anything by far.

Stopping nearby a bulletin board Lauren nabbed herself a map, never having actually been to Prontera herself, only vaguely near it a couple times.

Finding it surprising at how long it took her to find the center of the entire city, not only was the merchant population just as strong but more and more people were scurrying about their buisness.

A familiar face being spotted by the sharp eye of the sniper, a fellow guild mate.

Lauren found a stone by her foot, picking it up and hurling it at the happily resting Assassin cross sitting on the side of the center fountain piece in the middle of the city

the stone popping right off the side of his head, and in retort the assassin looked in the direction it came from, his fiery eyes only keeping their glare for a few moments as he spotted where it was thrown from.

"Just got here and your already trying to get into trouble eh?" the assassin asked as he stood up from his spot, Lauren daintily made her way over, barely able to hide the smirk curving its way on one side of her lips.

Both of them opening their arms to another for a short hugging embrace for a few moments.

"I don't want to seem too forward, but did you manage to get it?" Lauren asked as she stepped away from the friendly hug she shared with her friend.

The assassin only laughed in response.

"Of course I did, I said you could count on me, did I not?"

Lauren shrugged her gesture out as the assassin brought out a very simple key, handing it over to Lauren as she grasped it into her hand with a sigh of relief, followed by a small chuckle

Lauren exhaling sharply before speaking.

"Sorry but, its really the only thing I got left you know?"

The assassin nodded in agreement.

"Yeah I understand, but anyways, guild wars are tomorrow and I need to get back and assemble whats left of the guild" the assassin said he held his head down, not knowing how Lauren was going to react.

"Who's in charge now?" Lauren simply asked him.

"We haven't decided yet, most of the newer members left, but a good hand full of people still fight under your name" he replied.

Lauren nodded and placed her hand over his shoulder for any sign of comfort.

"I'm sure you'll all do fine without me"

The assassin let out a long sigh of agreement and started making his way

"Wait!" Lauren exclaimed, chuckling softly. "I need some money"

"Oh right.." the assassin dug into his pocket and pulled out a small pouch, tossing it over to Lauren.

"Should last you a couple days"

with that the assassin did a simple bow to Lauren and vanished into the shadows of daylight.

Lauren dug her map back out and looked around for the nearest Kafra location.

Heading there a little more spiritedly then she was a few minutes ago.

Opening the pouch of zeny and taking out the proper amount to cover the storage access fee as she walked up to the Kafra.

"I'd like to access my storage please." Lauren said, dumping the small pile of zeny onto the table in front of the Kafra.

The Kafra smiled and gave Lauren a sheet of paper about what she had in storage.

Only a couple items since most of which had to be given back as she was expelled from Payon.

The Kafra summoned out Lauren's desired item, a long rectangular case with a lock on it.

Lauren looked over the case with a broad smile as she unlocked it, opening the case to reveal an unstrung Rudra bow.

Taking it out along with a wound spool of bow string.

Taking a seat on a nearby bench, carefully winding the bow up firmly.

Easily feeling the essence of power imbue within the bow as she took it in hand after it was strung.

Her free hand went over her shoulder around her back to grab at nothing, quickly the palm of her hand met her forehead.

"No arrows.." Lauren sighed, wondering when this day would come to an end.

The next hour comprised of searching through what seemed to be endless amounts of shops setup by local merchants. Buying enough materials to get her a decent amount of basic element oriented arrows.

The next thing that came across her mind was money and or a good income.

And if Prontera had just as much to offer as Payon did and more, then there had to be a local arena in the vicinity.

Taking out her trusty map once again and sure enough, the arena was close by.

The only draw back that she found upon entering the arena sign up area was,

they were only allowing party duels for the time being, and the lowest grade was two versus two.

Shrugging to herself and going outside and sharply whistling, waiting for only a few moments before her falcon was quickly to its summoned locations upon her shoulder.

Looking at her falcon with a content smile as she stroked the side of its head gently.

"I'm sorry Romaleos, I don't have any food for you now, but I can if you help me right now"

Romaleos, or Roma for short, stayed planted firmly in place upon her shoulder as its sign of agreement, Lauren smiled and walked back into the arena, making her way to the front desk.

"Are there any matches open?" she asked the woman behind the desk, and she nodded in reply.

"Plenty, but you require a party to step inside the arena ma'am" the woman behind the desk added to her gesture.

"Sign me and my falcon up then" Lauren replied with a little smirk slapped across her lips.

The woman laughed and only nodded. "Your name please?"

"Lauren" Romaleos let out a firm shriek right after Lauren spoke. "And my falcon, Romaleos"

the arena manager pointed with her finger behind Lauren. "Those two are your opponents"

Lauren turned around, seeing a Lord Knight paired up with an assassin, walking over, just within arms reach.

"How about a little wager on this one boys?" Lauren asked directly to the Lord Knight, seeing as how he would've been in charge of the two.

"Yeah? How much we talkin here then missy?" the assassin spoke up.

The lord knight firmly pushed the assassin away a little bit, grabbing him by the scruff of his outfit.

"Damnit, do you not remember where that kind of talk got you last time?!" the lord knight asked him, holding a bit of anger behind his words.

The lord knight shook his head and sighed, dropping the assassin, his body his the ground with a little thud, followed by a chuckle from Lauren.

"I'm a little short on money here, but lets say.." Lauren spoke before the lord knight could suggest a wager.

"If you two win, you can have me for the night, and if I win..how about...one hundred large a little too big for your wallets?" Lauren asked, smirking slightly.

The lord knight only pondered for a few moments before nodding, reaching out his hand to seal the deal, "Deal"

the assassin was about to speak but obviously these two aren't new friends and the lord knight saw it coming and simply glared at him to shut up.

Lauren walked over to the front desk. Tapping the hard top to get the managers attention.

"We're all ready to go then" stated Lauren.

All three of them were directed to the appropriate stage on which their duel was to be held, there was no audience, this was all rather discrete.

Now in her starting position, feeling more then ready she looked to her falcon.

"Get that annoying assassin first, he's obviously going to hide about his shadows and cause some problems, okay?"

Romaleos cawed a couple times and flew away.

'You better, you ass..' Lauren thought to herself.

Hearing the arena ding once as a sign to get ready.

The prep room she was in was somewhat small, and the corridor leading to the main room was very narrow, hardly room to fit about 4 people.

And from what she could see, there was an elevated stage in the middle of the arena, blocking the view of the other side, figuring this arena was symmetric.

Feeling a shiver run up her spine as she forced herself into a battle ready state.

Her pupils slivered as her sniper instinct took over, allowing her to see more then the normal eye could.

Lauren immediately darted forward into a quick sprint as the final arena bell sounded and the magical gate forbidding her movement into the center arena opened, she jumped and mantled herself up onto the center stage, seeing her two opponents still making their way down their own corridor that lead to her position.

Resting her weight onto one leg while the other was stretched out, she notched an arrow into place, pulling back on the bow string, the power that was imbue into the bow quickly rushed through her, guiding her shot as she narrowed her sights down to the lord knight.

The shriek of Laurens falcon was loud and it caught her opponents attention for precious moments.

Releasing her oridecon tipped arrow, letting it fly and pierce through the air.

The assassin quickly cloaked himself at the first sign of danger, but Romaleos picked up on years of experience by Laurens side and knew she hated those who hid themselves from her during a fight.

The aura around Romaleos erupted in fire as he picked up an impossible amount of speed, easily striking the cloaked inexperienced assassin.

Lauren knowing that he lacked vitality to withstand such a strong attack would be down for the count.

Laurens attention quickly went back to the Lord knight who now had a powerful yellow aura around him, his blade was shining bright white and there was no sign of any arrow striking him what so ever.

Looking closer she noticed the Knight pick his weapon back up with two hands.

The fact quickly hitting Lauren 'Crap..the parry type' she thought to herself.

"This may get interesting.." Lauren whispered as she notched another arrow...


	2. Chapter 2

The sound of disturbed air was clear after Lauren launched the second arrow towards her opponent.

Only to be easily parried by the well trained knight.

"Romaleos! Go!" Lauren shouted and positioned herself onto one knee, taking out two traps and rigging them into shockwave type traps.

'fine, here's something you can't parry' Lauren thought to herself as she looked up, seeing the fiery eruption created around her falcon make an attempt to attack the knight, but of course, either getting lucky by now, or a great deal of skill in two handed parrying.

Lauren tossed one of her traps up into the air and quickly took aim, holding onto the shot till the right moment.

Letting the arrow pin the trap and sending it flying through the air towards the knight.

The knight looked down at the trap that pegged him and fell helplessly to the ground, shielding himself and expecting it to explode, by the time he unshielded his face the second trap came flying at him, pinning him right in the face, shaking his head after recovering from the impact.

'Two ought a do it' Lauren thought, standing up in her spot and taking out two arrows and notching one above the other. Letting both arrows soar quickly towards her target.

The lord knight now aware of what type of traps just hit him, since the only aura around him now was the platinum shine trim over random areas of his armor.

The two arrows struck him but his armor absorbed all of the damage they would've caused.

The knight quickly summoned a spear while Lauren prepped another set of arrows to launch and got into a position to throw it, his entire body thrusting forward in one strong motion, sending the spear flying forward at a speed that was rival the speed of Laurens arrows.

The spear pegged itself right into the center of Laurens chest, the impact sending her flying right off the edge of the platform she was on, cursing under her breath after making a quick recovery upon the impact with the ground.

Wincing as she took the spear impeded into her chest with both hands, breaking the handle off but leaving the tip in for now.

Having heard the sound of a Lord Knight entering a state of berserk was nothing Lauren couldn't distinguish easily, as the sound hit her ears she hit a new level of awareness.

Summoning an ankle snare type trap and mantling herself back up onto the platform before her, not finding it too surprising that the Lord Knight was on the same page as her and was already charging, holding his lengthy two handed sword in a downward slashing position.

Quickly tossing the snare in the direction of the Knight, and his reigning charge came to a quick halt as the snare gripped down onto his ankle.

Lauren smirked and took out an array of arrows, unleashing them in a volley and simply pointing at the Knight after each struck their target successfully.

Romaleos quickly swooping down on demand and delivering the final blow.

The Lord Knight fell to the ground, not quite in a state of defeat yet, but just enough so that he could speak.

Lauren didn't bother listening as she soon heard the arena bell sound off, feeling herself warp back to the ready room back in the arena building in a medical service area.

Finding it much like Payon, all of her wounds healed, the only notable thing that was different was the quality of the bedroom she was in.

Making her way downstairs and finding her previous opponents sitting on a waiting couch over in the corner, smiling as she made her way over, holding out her hand, waiting for her share of the deal.

The Lord Knight shook his head and held out his hand, a coupon held between his fingers, the Kafra corporation logo on the top with a number printed across it with his initials.

"Maybe a rematch when my teammate isn't so useless eh?" The Knight winked and nudged the assassin sitting next to him playfully, Lauren having a mild respect for his sportsmanship.

"Who knows" Lauren replied as she slipped the coupon away, making her way out the door, it was getting dark already, the life of Prontera was mostly indoors now.

Cashing her coupon for her prize money and finding the closest local pub, setting her falcon free for the night before going in.

The rest of the night went on slowly as it lacked anything interesting besides Lauren downing shot after shot of alcohol, spending a good chunk of her winnings directly towards it.

Somehow she made it to an inn and rented a room for the night without injuring herself, which was definatly a different story almost ever night had she still been in Payon.

The next couple of days went by while she searched for a guild to join, not having the best of luck, the ones that were recruiting were too low tier for her liking.

Figuring her only hope right now was to get an outstanding reputation in the field of combat in order to get herself into a high tier guild that had the possibility of owning a castle.

Paying the odd visit to the arena every second day or so to keep herself steady on income, finding it surprising at how easy people love to blow off their money in this city.

About a week passed before her luck ran out in the arena and a Champion managed to slip away with a clean victory with a bit of luck.

Meeting him in the lobby as she hung her head with a mild blush, tossing over a pouch of money to the winner.

The Champion tossing it back, quirking his head to get her attention.

"Keep it, say, I notice your not carrying a tag, you by chance looking for a guild to join?"

"Possibly, you've got my attention" Lauren replied.

"How about we pay a quick visit to my guild hall, and we'll see huh?"

Lauren nodded and with that, they headed out, refreshing themselves before making their way to one end of Prontera.

Hearing the sound of her falcon Lauren looked up, and soon enough Romaleos landed upon her shoulder, cawing rather mockingly, knowing what happened.

"Shut up you" Lauren said and poked her falcon teasingly and he flew off.

"By the way, I didn't quite managed to get ahold of your name" the Champion asked, looking over to Lauren for a response.

"Might just be in my world, but in these kind of greetings, the greeter announces their name first" Lauren replied back jokingly.

"Ah yes...I'm Jay" he replied

Lauren was about to reply back before Jay stopped, looking at a building not too far off with a content sigh.

"There it is" he added, Lauren tilted her head to one side as it looked like a restaurant, quickly catching up, spitting out whatever came to her mind.

"Thats your guild hall?" she asked.

"Well yeah, its also our business, ya know money doesn't come free"

They both walked in and the setting was rather luxurious, nothing spectacularly fancy, but it wasn't a dump either, there was a good handful of customers seated just about everywhere.

"Cmon" Jay leaded the way while Lauren was busy soaking up the environment, snapping out of it eventually and following him.

"Yeah im from Payon, I dont know if you've ever been there, but nothing there looks like this.."

"Fair enough, just don't stray too far"

Both of them eventually making it to the back of the place, entering a whole new area of the building, being very clear from the start that this was the actual guild hall for their guild.

Just shortly after entering the hall, the sound of a coin being flung was heard, and knocking Lauren right on the side of the head, rubbing the spot where it hit and looking to see where it came from, seeing a young gunslinger with a pair of pistols drawn out.

"Hah! I got you! Guns 'are' better then bows after all!" the boy exclaimed.

Jay forced out a laugh and scratched his head.

"Easy there cowboy, this one bites" he winked

"Oh please, there hasn't been a single hunter that I've met that has beat me" he spat back at him.

"Give it a break for now.." Jay replied, making his way and gesturing for Lauren to follow.

Lauren smiled at the young gunslinger, holding her hand in the form of a hand gun, mouthing the words 'pow' to him and walking away.

"Yeah! You walk away!" the boy added, looking around with a dieing laugh as no one was around to hear his comeback.

Lauren and Jay arrived in what appeared to be a living area, beds and whatnot all around the room, only one other door that lead outback, the sounds of metal clanging could be heard.

Making their way outside Lauren witnessed a Knight and Lord Knight fighting it out, much to her surprise, the Knight was actually holding his ground against a superior.

"The rest of the guild are out on some kind of errand in Morroc, they'll be back in like two days, but this is basically it, waddya say?"

"I don't know, would all of you ever consider going after a castle?" she asked.

"Sure, maybe when we get enough members to actually mount an effective siege.."

Lauren gave it a pondering thought and was about to answer when a sword came from the direction of the two knights sparring, sliding across the grassy ground beside Jay and her.

A victory cry came from the Knight as he held his sword up, the lord knight was sitting down on the ground leaning back on his arms, panting and eventually collapsing backwards.

The Knight came over, still clearly in fighting shape as he looked over to Lauren for a moment, then over to Jay with a questioning face.

"Who's this?"

"Possibly a new member" Jay answered.

"Another transcendent I can beat?" he asked mockingly, taking another look at Lauren.

She raised her brow in response, not exactly sure what to say.

"Uhm well anyways, Zack, meet Lauren...Lauren...Zack"

Lauren crossed her arms and tapped her foot lightly.

"So what happens if I beat you kiddo?"

"Kid?"

Lauren nodded and smiled sheepishly in return, just about the speak before the Lord Knight came over.

"Who's thi-"

"She's new" Zack interrupted.

"Obviously, not too often theres a Sniper kicking around"

"..And thats Eli" Jay added.

A small awkward moment of silence went by before Lauren spoke.

"Right well, sign me up I guess"

"Awesome, welcome to the guild" Zack said.


End file.
